Biological Individuality

Introduction

As a doctor with an appreciation for the importance of good nutrition, you have experienced the frustration of seeing patient after patient that you know needs nutritional help, yet not always being able to meet their needs. On one hand you have a patient in need, on the other you have the many and varied combinations of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and glandulars at your disposal. How do you bring the two together effectively? Where do you begin? NUTRI-SPEC offers an answer to these questions in the form of an analytical, systematic approach. The goal at NUTRI-SPEC is nutritional specificity, i.e., a means of testing each individual for his specific nutrition needs.

A scientific testing system has been developed at NUTRI-SPEC by which you can for the first time begin to realize the full potential of clinical nutrition. You will, with these tests, be able to categorize each of your patients in terms of their metabolic imbalances. These metabolic imbalances will be the sole criteria upon which you treat your patients, regardless of what their symptoms or conditions may be. With this NUTRI-SPEC testing system, it can now be demonstrated by objective clinical indicators that there is no patient whose health problem does not have a nutritional component. This is because there is no health problem that does not involve some form of metabolic imbalance.

In other words, regardless of the ultimate cause of a patient’s suffering, pain or disease, once the condition has become symptomatic the symptoms expressed will respond to some degree to nutritional therapeutic intervention, if that intervention is able to intrude upon the metabolic imbalances associated with that patient’s symptoms. This makes nutrition a clinical tool with universal application and almost unlimited potential. “An Analytical System of Clinical Nutrition” is a complete presentation of the NUTRI-SPEC testing system; the theory, the science, and the clinical procedures. In order to fully benefit from this presentation there are several key concepts you must understand.

Biological Individuality

It has often been said (and now can be objectively clinically verified using NUTRI-SPEC) that no two people are alike. Even the most casual look at the people around you reveals a diversity of sizes, shapes, personalities and levels of health. You are seeing merely the outward manifestations of internal chemical differences. In other words, the physical, mental and emotional qualities expressed by people are a reflection of their individual body chemistries; and different body chemistries mean different nutrition requirements to maintain metabolic balance and to enable that individual to fully express his innate potential. For example, someone may eat a breakfast of sausage, eggs and home fries and feel great, running in high gear for hours.

That same breakfast might make you feel like crawling back into bed, and might have someone else running for the antacids. NUTRI-SPEC testing reveals why. Your nutrition needs are likely to be quite different than many people you know. And, furthermore, your nutrition needs may be different today than they were six months ago or will be six months hence. Understanding this concept of biological individuality gives you a new way to look at nutrition. Any time you read an article or hear a lecture promoting “the ideal diet,” whether it be a high protein diet, a complex carbohydrate diet, a vegetarian diet, or whatever, you can justifiably ignore every word of it. The key concept of biological individuality is being ignored. It is high time all of us in the field of clinical nutrition give up the search for this magical, mystical “ideal diet.”

There simply is no such thing. Furthermore, anytime you encounter an article or lecture promoting a particular food as a “health food,” certain to work wonders for the health and well-being of every man, woman and child, ignore it as well. Or, if a particular vitamin or mineral is being touted as good for this or that disease or condition, ignore it. Any two people are likely to have a dramatically different reaction to a food, or to a nutritional supplement. The sad truth is, in both the lay and professional literature, biological individuality is rarely considered. All we are offered is vitamin B6 to cure this, zinc to cure that, and so on. NUTRI-SPEC testing verifies the concept of biological individuality. It is seen that no two people, even if they present the same disease or condition, are alike.

As a NUTRI-SPEC practitioner the simple message to get through to your patients is that different people have different nutrient requirements for their body to produce energy efficiently and to perform all its other functions efficiently. A good analogy would be to compare two different people to two different cars – say two Mercedes, one that runs on diesel and one that runs on premium gasoline. They may look the same; they may perform the same function; they may have the same basic design of engine; but – mix up the fuels and look out. So it is with people. Some don’t do too well if they eat too much red meat, yet some become incredibly weak without red meat. NUTRI-SPEC Testing can tell which is the ideal fuel for each person.

Similarly, some people thrive on eating cheese or butter, while other people have terrible trouble if they eat cheese or butter. Again, NUTRI-SPEC can tell who is who. Some people might desperately need a calcium supplement, yet there are others who will very quickly become sick and weak if they take excess calcium, or the wrong form of calcium. NUTRI-SPEC Testing can tell you exactly what supplements, exactly how much, and in exactly what form is ideal for the individual body chemistry of each patient. Since everyone is different, we need a comprehensive system of evaluating each individual’s nutrition needs. We need a scientific analysis. That is what NUTRI-SPEC is all about – making nutrition scientific. And in having made it more scientific, NUTRI-SPEC testing has simplified the practice of clinical nutrition.

Scientific Analysis Vs Empiricism

What does that word, “empiricism” mean to you? You can think of empiricism as a fancy word for trial and error; trial and error based upon educated guesses. While empirical clinical techniques may be scientifically derived, they are not often scientifically applied. To illustrate; vitamin C has been demonstrated to have a statistically significant effect in benefiting the common cold. This information about vitamin C has been derived based on scientific studies. However, there are no objective scientific indicators by which a clinician can apply this information about vitamin C to patients who have a common cold. Prescribing vitamin C for a patient with a cold is really done on a trial and error, educated guess basis.

As you will learn from using the NUTRI-SPEC system, there are several metabolic imbalances that are indeed helped measurably by therapeutic doses of Vitamin C. If a hypothetical patient with the common cold has succumbed to this cold because of a lowered resistance associated with one of these biochemical imbalances, the Vitamin C supplementation will always help this patient to fight off the cold. There are, however, at least 3 or 4 metabolic imbalances that are actually exacerbated by therapeutic doses of Vitamin C. Suppose now that your hypothetical cold patient is suffering a decrease in immune resistance associated with one of these metabolic imbalances. Will prescribing Vitamin C help this patient? No.

Quite the contrary, it will, in throwing this patient’s body chemistry further off balance, actually prolong the battle to overcome the cold symptoms. This failure to recognize biological individuality is the fatal flaw of most scientific studies referenced by your typical clinical nutritionist. The statistically significant group whose condition benefits from the nutrient under study must have some quality which distinguishes it from the unresponsive group. This unrecognized quality is clearly revealed by NUTRI-SPEC testing to be a difference in body chemistry. When clinicians employ empirical methods they are directed in their therapeutic efforts only by the subjective response of the patient. When you employ NUTRI-SPEC methods you are directed in your therapeutic efforts by objectively measured changes in your patient’s body chemistry.

Patient-Specific Vs Disease-Specific

The perfect example of empirical methods is the practice of allopathic medicine; medicine being essentially a disease-specific approach to patient care. In other words, it is known empirically that a specific disease or condition has a certain probability of responding to a particular therapy. The therapy is implemented and the patient’s subjective response is awaited. The empirical trial may be a success, or may prove to be in error, in which case a second clinical trial is prescribed, and so on. This empirical, disease-specific approach is the road taken by virtually all of today’s researchers in clinical nutrition. The goal apparently is to match each of the thousands of named diseases and conditions with a nutritional cure. There is a better approach. Whatever merits empiricism has in the practice of medicine, it is neither the simplest nor the most efficacious way to practice clinical nutrition. The third of our KEY CONCEPTS, patient-specific vs. disease-specific, truly sets the NUTRI-SPEC system apart from the standard approach to clinical nutrition. NUTRI-SPEC offers a viable alternative to disease-specific empiricism, namely, a patient-specific scientific analysis.

This patient-specific approach will allow you to do with NUTRI-SPEC what could not be achieved with other forms of clinical nutrition. In just a few minutes you can perform and evaluate over 45 different tests on a patient and thus determine exactly what foods make that patient stronger and what foods make him susceptible to disease. You will also know exactly which nutrition supplements will make him healthy and which will actually make him weaker. NUTRI-SPEC testing is the one scientific way to determine the biological individuality of each of your patients. NUTRI-SPEC is a truly holistic clinical nutrition system. Most other nutrition systems that claim to be natural and holistic are merely trying to treat diseases with vitamins and minerals, using them as medicines. The true meaning of the word holistic is treating the person, not treating his disease – and that is what NUTRI-SPEC achieves.

In identifying imbalances in your patients’ body chemistries you are getting to the underlying causes of their conditions. The fascinating thing about using NUTRI-SPEC is that you find yourself treating two patients having identical symptoms with entirely different nutrition programs. For instance, two patients with apparently the same osteoarthritis might test out as having entirely different metabolic imbalances predisposing them to arthritis. Anyone who tries an “arthritis treatment” on these two patients would necessarily fail in at least one of the cases. The reason for failure obviously is that no consideration is given to what might be the causative factors. NUTRI-SPEC has proved that nutritional balancing of body chemistry imbalances is one way to restore and maintain health, regardless of what symptoms the patient presents.

There is not a disease in this world that you cannot help with NUTRI-SPEC, because there is not a patient in this world that you cannot help with NUTRI-SPEC. In other words, while NUTRI-SPEC may not be the sole answer to a patient’s problem, every single patient that walks through your door has metabolic imbalances that are weakening him and predisposing him to disease and/or low vitality, and/or premature aging. By correcting his metabolic imbalances with NUTRI-SPEC you will be getting directly to a major cause of his disease, his low vitality, or his premature aging. If, however, you take the traditional empirical approach of giving a patient a nutritional remedy for whatever ails him, you are going to at best give him a temporary symptomatic boost, while inevitably actually exacerbating his body chemistry imbalances. In the long run, the patient is always worse after the doctor takes a disease specific approach to his symptoms. With NUTRI-SPEC you will never again feel the need to take an empirical shot in the dark. You will have objective tests to guide your nutrition therapy.

Comprehensive and Objective Testing

If a patient-specific, scientific analysis is our goal, how do we achieve it? Clearly, prescription of a patient-specific nutrition regimen must be dependent upon a comprehensive evaluation of that patient. Furthermore, the patient evaluation must be achieved via objective testing procedures. NUTRI-SPEC offers an analytical system by which to achieve a comprehensive patient evaluation. That system is based upon objective clinical data. The data is derived from 2 sources:

a) Tests of vital signs and neuro-endocrine reflexes.

b) Tests of urine and saliva chemistries.

During the developmental years of the NUTRI-SPEC system much clinical experience was accumulated demonstrating the clinical extremes found for each of these different urine and saliva chemistries and each of the different vital signs and neuro-endocrine reflexes. It became apparent that groups or patterns of abnormal test results would tend to occur simultaneously. For example, it most often occurred that high urine pH was accompanied by low urine specific gravity.

Before long these simultaneously occurring patterns of abnormal test results could be labeled. In other words, one pattern of abnormalities corresponded to an acid condition, another pattern related to cardio-renal disease, and so on. After years of clinical testing, patterns of aberrant test results associated with several fundamental metabolic control systems were defined. These fundamental control systems are ubiquitous, playing a role in virtually every state of health or disease. Thus, a comprehensive, objective means of evaluating functional metabolic control in each patient has been achieved.

Patterns

A pattern of dysfunction is defined by a collection of aberrant test results. These aberrations are indicative of lost homeostasis in those body functions associated with a particular metabolic chemical control system. NUTRI-SPEC has identified five of these metabolic control systems which are continuously active in maintaining metabolic balance. Each of these five balance systems can shift out of balance in two opposite ways. Thus, there are a total of ten PATTERNS OF METABOLIC IMBALANCE that you will learn to identify and treat with your NUTRI-SPEC system.

The total essence of NUTRI-SPEC philosophy can be simply stated as follows: Every condition or disease can be defined in terms of its Patterns of Metabolic Imbalance. In other words, rather than name and treat the “disease,” define and treat the pattern. In so doing you will have a patient-specific approach, derived from a scientific analysis and based upon the concept of biological individuality.

NUTRI-SPEC testing can add a whole new dimension to your clinical practice by giving you an objective system by which to monitor the results of your therapy, rather than relying solely on the subjective response of the patient. In other words, when your therapy is effective you will know why. You will know exactly which metabolic control systems have benefited. And when you are ineffective, or perhaps even counterproductive, you will have a set of objective monitors, telling you why, and keeping you continuously apprised of the problem systems.